


The One I Want (You Are)

by Brumeier



Series: Summer Lovin' [2]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Fluff and Humor, Kid Fic, Kissing, M/M, Movie Reference, Reunions, Summer Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-10-21 14:21:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20694974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier
Summary: Twenty years later John returns to the Island where he'd met Rodney, and has a wholly unexpected encounter in a movie theater.





	The One I Want (You Are)

**Summer, 2005**

The theater on Crane Street was just like John remembered it. Maybe a little shabbier. There was a multiplex on Main now and the fact that the little theater was even still open was pretty surprising. It was also mostly empty, thanks in part to the perfect summer weather outside and the street fair that was going all day.

John settled into his seat with a bag of popcorn, enjoying the time to himself. He’d only just reconciled with his brother and had agreed to join Dave and his family on the Island for the summer. He’d needed to get away for a while, from his attention-seeking little nieces and from the memories of all the summers his family had spent at the cottage. Back when they were still a family. 

_Fantastic Four_ was playing. John wasn’t really into the superhero movie genre, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. Besides, it was never a hardship to watch Jessica Alba on the big screen. John might be gay, but he could appreciate a fine female form. And the guy playing Johnny Storm wasn’t bad looking, either.

“This is stupid.”

John had a dizzying moment of déjà vu. The only thing that kept him from looking for the person who’d spoken was the fact that the voice had been decidedly female. He remembered meeting Rodney in that same theater, twenty years ago. His life had been much simpler then. And the movies had been better, he remembered that for sure.

“Geez. Didn’t anyone read the comics before they wrote this trash?”

John bit back a laugh and glanced down his row at the teenage girl who was sitting on the edge of her seat, arms dangling over the empty seat in front of her. She wasn’t wrong. The movie had good visual effects, but was definitely lacking something. 

“Can you believe I paid money for this?” the girl asked John. “I wish I knew who told Jessica Alba she can act.”

“She’s not that bad,” John protested.

“She is if you look past the boobs.”

John choked on his popcorn. When he’d recovered he asked, “Why aren’t you at the street fair?”

“I don’t like big crowds,” the girl replied with a shrug. “And the multiplex doesn’t have anything good, unless you’re into zombies or sentient cars, which I’m not.”

“_Batman Begins_ wasn’t bad.”

“Too dark and broody. I mean, my dad loves him, but the dude needs to lighten up. Batman. Not my dad.” The girl pushed her curly blonde hair behind her ear. “Best movies so far this year are _Revenge of the Sith, Constantine, Madagascar_, and _Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy_.”

John couldn’t help making a face. “The Star Wars prequels suck.”

“Everyone your age thinks that. The effects are better.”

“The new movies have no soul. Have you seen the original trilogy?”

The girl rolled her eyes. “Of course. Like, a million times. They got a lot of the science wrong, but they’re okay. Han Solo was kind of cute.”

John didn’t disagree with that. He belatedly had the thought that he shouldn’t be debating movies with a young girl he wasn’t related to in an empty movie theater. Did that make him creepy?

“Are you single?” the girl asked.

John sighed. He never saw these things coming. “Listen, you –”

“Not for me, obviously, because you’re way too old. And I have a boyfriend at home. His name is Mikey and he’s the head of the Debate Club. I meant for my dad.”

It wasn’t great hearing how old she thought he was, but John was still relieved that she wasn’t hitting on him. That would’ve been awkward.

“I don’t –”

“It’s just that you like the same things,” the girl said, talking over John again. “Well, the same movies anyway. And we’re only here until the end of August, so it’s not like I’m trying to rope you into anything long term. But if he had someone to hang out with, I’d have more time to hang out these kids I met that seem pretty nice.”

John waited to see if there was more, and when the girl looked at him expectantly, he felt safe opening his mouth.

“That’s nice of you. Kind of. But I’m not looking for a boyfriend right now.”

It had been a while since he even considered dating. It hadn’t been possible when he was still in the Air Force, not with DADT hanging over his head like a black cloud. Now that he was out…well, he just wasn’t sure what he wanted to do.

“Bummer. Well, I tried.”

The girl turned back to the movie and John did the same, though he’d lost the thread of it a bit. That lasted for about five minutes.

“This movie is dragging. Maybe I should’ve gone to see _War of the Worlds_ at the multiplex. I mean, it’s probably stupid too, but Tom Cruise is cute.”

John remembered when _Top Gun_ came out. That had solidified his plans to join the Air Force, already something he’d been thinking about as high school graduation loomed. Maverick had been so cool. The memory of it was tainted now by the time John had served in Afghanistan, and the friends he’d lost there. There was no recapturing the past.

The door at the rear of the theater opened, letting in a brief bit of light from the lobby.

“I like the _Mission Impossible_ movies. All that cool spy stuff. All that tech is real, my dad said so. And he’d know.”

“Lacey! What have I said about talking to strangers?” A man slid into the end of the row next to the teenage girl, talking in what he probably thought was a whisper. 

“We both think the movie is lame, Dad. He doesn’t mind, right?”

“It’s fine,” John assured the guy. “She’s not bothering me.”

“No offense, but you could be a homicidal maniac or a pedophile or something.”

“None taken, thanks so much.”

“He’s nice,” Lacey insisted. “He hates the prequels, too.”

“Oh. Well, good.”

“Can we go? This movie is hella lame.”

“I just paid five dollars. We’ll stay till it’s over.”

Lacey let out a gusty sigh. “But it’s so bad. Please don’t make me.”

“I don’t make monkeys, I just train ‘em,” her dad replied.

Another wave of déjà vu rolled over John. Where had he heard that before?

“It embarrasses me how much you like that movie,” Lacey said. “No grown man should watch Pee-Wee Herman do anything.”

And then John remembered: _You don’t wanna get mixed up with a guy like me. I’m a loner, John. A rebel._

It was impossible. John was just caught up in all the memories that came with being back on the Island. Still, he tried to look past Lacey and get a better view of her father. Could it be? John’s heart was pounding so hard he was certain they could both hear it.

That summer with Rodney was one of the best John ever had. There’d been an immediate connection between them, something he’d never experienced with another person before or since. They’d spent the whole summer watching movies and flying Rodney’s specially-designed kites, and talking about everything and nothing. It wasn’t until the last day that John had realized Rodney was into him as more than a friend, and the only bad thing about the kissing was knowing they could’ve been doing it all summer.

“Nothing wrong with Pee-Wee Herman,” John said.

“Uh, did you miss the part with the porno theater? Because eww.” Lacey gagged for added effect. “So gross.”

“Not gonna argue with that, although I don’t know what they expect from people watching that kind of movie.” John leaned forward a little, trying to see Lacey’s dad. “There’s a lot of things about it you don’t know anything about. Things you wouldn’t understand. Things you couldn’t understand. Things you _shouldn’t_ understand.”

“Grownups are weird,” Lacey said. But her dad kind of choked and leaned out around her. 

“John?”

“Hey, Rodney,” John replied, and couldn’t stop the big, goofy smile from spreading across his face.

“What? How?”

“Wait,” Lacey said. “John? _The_ John? Summer of love John?”

“Shut up!” Rodney hissed at his daughter, and John wondered if he still blushed bright red when he was embarrassed.

“Okay, this is way better than the Craptastic Four. Let’s go.” Lacey popped up out of her seat and started pushing on Rodney. “I’ll give you the five bucks, Dad. Come on!”

John watched them, amused. He couldn’t believe Rodney had a daughter. The apple didn’t fall far from that tree. What happened to Lacey’s mom? If Lacey was looking for a boyfriend for her dad, they clearly weren’t together anymore.

Rodney was single. John’s skin flushed hot at the thought, even though mentally he knew it was ridiculous to assume that Rodney would still be interested in him after so many years. John had changed a lot from the carefree kid he’d been back in ’85. 

Once they were in the well-lit lobby, it was easy to see the physical changes in Rodney. Gone was the skinny kid with the New Wave hairstyle. Instead there were broad shoulders and a more solid build, and his hair was short and looked like it was receding. But John could still see the Rodney he knew in the other man’s face.

Without the cover of the dim lighting in the theater, the situation felt a little awkward.

“Hey,” Rodney said. “It’s, uh. It’s good to see you.”

“What are the odds, right?”

“One in ten thousand,” Lacey said, standing between them. She was wearing a Mars Investigations t-shirt.

Rodney glared at her. “That is a false statistic and I’ll thank you to stop throwing it around all the time.”

“It’s perfectly logical, Dad, if you take into account –”

Rodney held up his hand. “No. And do _not_ say the S word to me or I might have to ground you till you’re forty.”

His voice was deeper, but still held the same amount of snark. And his mouth still twisted down on one side. John had forgotten that.

“What are you doing here?” John couldn’t help asking. “Here on the Island, I mean.”

Rodney turned to look at him, and yes, he still turned bright red. “Oh, well. Lacey wanted to go on vacation –”

“Somewhere besides Aunt Jeannie’s in Vancouver,” Lacey interjected.

“ – and I remembered how nice it was here and, you know. Beachy.”

Lacey rolled her eyes. “Says the man who goes to the beach with an umbrella and industrial sunblock.”

“How about you?” Rodney asked. “Still coming here with your family?”

“Actually, this is the first time I’ve been back. I’m here with my brother and his family.”

“Single but not looking, I already asked,” Lacey stage-whispered to Rodney.

John rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly embarrassed himself.

“We were going to get lunch after the movie,” Rodney said hesitantly. “Would you…would you like to come with us?”

“Gino’s?”

“That place is still open? It was giant health code violation when we were kids.”

“Sounds good to me!” Lacey said. 

They went out to lunch and spent so long talking that they segued right into dinner. Lacey went to a party on the beach with her new friends, leaving Rodney and John on the porch of Rodney’s Air BnB rental, talking and drinking beer. When Lacey came back from the party, sticky from roasting marshmallows and smelling like wood smoke, John and Rodney were lying on blankets on the porch, looking up at the starry sky and holding hands.

They spent the rest of the summer together, sometimes doing things with Lacey and Dave’s family, and sometimes on their own. They didn’t spend much time at the movies, since there wasn’t really anything they wanted to see – the one exception being _Sky High_, which wasn’t too bad – and instead explored every corner of the Island looking for the places they remembered from twenty years ago and trying out the places that were new.

The kissing was better, now that they were both more experienced. The sex was amazing.

“Do you believe in soulmates?” Lacey asked John as August started winding down.

“Not really.”

“Well I do. How else do you explain you and Dad finding each other again after twenty years, in the same movie theater? That’s not just random chance.”

John wasn’t sure what to say to that. Soulmates were like love at first sight – romantic notions that had nothing to do with reality. But Lacey was right. How could it be random chance that they both decided to come back to the Island the same summer, after so many years?

“Do you believe in soulmates?” John asked Rodney a few days later.

“Don’t drink the Kool-Aid, John,” Rodney said. “You know who believes in soulmates? Romance novelists and teenage girls who read too much fan fiction.”

“What’s fan fiction?” 

“Never mind about that. And never mind about soulmates. This isn’t a romantic comedy.”

John disagreed on that last point. Everything about that summer would’ve made a perfect romcom. Him and Rodney reuniting, Lacey being the too-smart-for-her-own-good teenager that brings them together, that awkward first meeting with John’s family…all they needed was the happy ending.

Two weeks later they were on the pier, Rodney’s car already loaded on the ferry that would take him and Lacy to the mainland and from there to the airport.

“Goodbye, John.” Lacey threw her arms around him and hugged him tight. John hugged her back.

“You have a safe trip back.”

“We will.”

And then it was just John and Rodney. They kissed, slow and sweet, and John was already missing it.

“Don’t look like that,” Rodney said.

“Like what?”

“Like Droopy Dog. You’ll see me in two weeks.”

“Three hundred and thirty-six hours,” John sighed.

“You’ll survive.” 

But Rodney kissed him again, hands cupping John’s face.

Their second summer romance was turning into something more permanent. John figured he could discover what he wanted to do with the rest of his life just as easily in Seattle as anywhere, and while he was on his path to discovery, he could spend more time with Rodney and Lacey.

“We have to go,” Rodney said reluctantly.

“Two weeks,” John reminded him.

“Two weeks.” One last kiss. “Just so you know, I’m not saying I believe in soulmates. But I don’t disbelieve it either.”

John laughed and pushed Rodney up the gangplank.

Lacey and Rodney waved at John from the rail of the ferry as it pulled away from the pier. He waved back, feeling as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Starting the next chapter of his life wasn’t so daunting anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> **AN:** I had so much fun writing the first part of this story that I felt compelled to write a follow-up. Well, that and so many people wanted one. ::grins:: I apologize to any fans of the 2005 _Fantastic Four_ movie. I haven’t seen it, though I am a big Chris Evans fan. All complaints come from friends and online criticisms. In addition, you can say what you want about Pee-Wee Herman, but _Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure_ is awesome and you’ll never convince me otherwise. Also, that movie is hella quotable. 
> 
> The title is from the movie _Grease_, which also inspired the original fic.


End file.
